Letitia James’ victory in the runoff election for public advocate could have a spillover effect on who controls the City Council next year, sources said.

As the first African-American woman to hold citywide office, James unintentionally cleared the path for one of the white male candidates vying to become the next council speaker.

It was all but certain council members would elect a minority or a woman had James lost to rival Dan Squadron.

In that case, all three citywide officials would have been white males, assuming Bill de Blasio ended as mayor and Scott Stringer as comptroller.

“If the city’s entire elected leadership is white, it gives a person of color a much stronger argument as to why they should be speaker. Now, that’s somewhat off the table,” said one Democrat closely following the race.

There are at three likely contenders who are white men: Dan Garodnick of Manhattan, Mark Weprin of Queens and Jimmy Vacca of The Bronx.

Jimmy Van Bramer of Queens is also rumored to be mulling a run for the office, which is selected by an in-house vote of the 51 council members in January.

The minorities and women vying for speaker include Melissa Mark Viverito and Inez Dickens of Manhattan, Annabel Palma of The Bronx and Julissa Ferreras of Queens.

They would replace outgoing Speaker Christine Quinn — the first female and first openly gay leader of the body — who recently lost her bid to become mayor.

One longtime council employee said the speaker’s race is still likely to favor one of the minority candidates, although James’ victory eases the pressure on the white hopefuls.

“It makes it more digestible, but the fact that people of color are the majority in the City Council and New York City as a whole, will still be a factor,” the source said.